MOSCOW, November 30. /TASS/. Russia considers as a ‘provocation’ Kiev’s plans to hold missile launches near Crimea to prompt Moscow’s tough response and retain American patronage, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.

"With regard to the so-called drills with missile launches, I want to say that this is, of course, a new large-scale provocation of Ukrainian authorities," the Russian diplomat said.

"It was aimed at escalating the conflict between Ukraine and Russia. Kiev is constantly keeping up this theme, keeping it afloat" the spokeswoman said.

Ukraine’s direct provocation was designed to "wait until Russia’s tough response," Zakharova said.

At the same time, the Russian diplomat said she did not rule out that Kiev was gripped with the desire after Donald Trump’s victory at the US presidential elections "to try to keep the United States by all means as its chief patron."

"For this purpose, provocations are needed," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.

"This is a classical method, unfortunately, for those countries and for those politicians for whom their personal interests and ambitions prevail over the interests and lives of people and citizens of their country," the diplomat said.

"The goal of retaining such patronage is an uneasy task for the Ukrainian authorities as they behaved completely impudently, including towards the presidential candidate and now the US President-elect," Zakharova said.

In this regard, the Russian diplomat recalled Ukrainian officials’ insulting pronouncements about Trump and also that Kiev had made an information leak at the very inappropriate moment that the head of Trump’s election campaign headquarters had allegedly received money from Ukrainian oligarchs.

"It looks very much like a provocation to again show off a victim that should evoke sympathy now from new officials and the new establishment and thus extend and prolong the patronage, including from the United States," the Russian diplomat said.

"And, of course, Kiev needs a new spiral of escalating the conflict situation to distract attention from the exacerbating political, economic and social crisis in that country [Ukraine]," the Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said.